A review by tasharobinson
Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach by Brian Azzarello

2.0

I get the impression that no one writing these Watchmen prequels can entirely decide who Eddie Blake is — cynical but wise truth-teller to power, or bratty fuck-up channeled into a useful weapon by much smarter people? Patriot or psychopath? In it for the kicks or for the results? I know, porque no los dos and all, but it still feels like of all the characters who pop up multiple times in these prequels, he's the one written most inconsistently, and in ways that are hard to reconcile. Brian Azzarello writes him as bits and pieces of all of these things, in a narrative that never really held together for me, or tried to get go deeper than the Forrest Gump conceit that someone this useful to powerful people would be front and center during a lot of important historical events. The Rorschach story, on the other hand, just feels grossly exploitative, with a lot of glistening naked female bodies turning up with words carved in them, and Rorschach getting himself beaten to a pulp over and over trying to do something about it.